For Shakhtar, it will be the first official game in 2016. The Pitmen were getting ready for the resumption of the season at the training camps in America and Spain, where they played a large number of friendlies.

Mircea Lucescu has talked about the team news before the match. In winter, Alex Teixeira left the team. Bernard, Dentinho, Azevedo and Fred will miss the game. As for Schalke, Franco Di Santo will not be available for the guests. Matija Nastasic and Benedikt Howedes will not be involved in the game either.

The German Bundesliga, compared to the Ukrainian league, is in full swing. In 2016, Schalke suffered a home defeat against Werder, beat Darmstadt and Wolfsburg, and then lost to Mainz. Thanks to that victory, Mainz are now equal with Schalke on points (33). The teams are sitting in 5 and 6 places in the table.

The German team’s campaign in the Europa League has been very confident. In the group alongside Sparta, Asteras and APOEL, they took first place. Schalke and Napoli have conceded the lowest number of goals in the current edition of the competition (3). In terms of scoring goals, the team are third (15 goals; 2,5 goals per game).